The Nigerian  citizens: tax payers and workers, artisans, petrol attendants, roadside mechanics, all of who make the nation prosper, by producing  goods and services, have all been sentenced to death by the paucity of reliable infrastructures, including health care services, in our country. The very insignificantly-few, who  are not, are the politicians and their families, who jet out, at our expense, at the earliest sign of sickness, to other lands where governments provide robust health care delivery systems and other life-sustaining infrastructures for their own citizens-what an irony.

Ibrahim Babangida jetted out to cure what they, then, called radiculopathy (or something like that) Umoru Musa Yardua got ferried abroad where lots and lots of public monies were spent on him and his numerous visitors, till he gave up the ghost, without a single taxpayer knowing the exact nature of his illness-may his soul rest in peace. Till date, the exact time he passed on and the identity of who signed his last budget are couched in controversy because the crooks around him weren’t forthcoming on his exact state of events. The Murtala Muhammed Airport was thrown into what looked like a deliberate darkness to enable the movement of the cargo carrying him, so no one knows if or not he was alive. Muhammadu Buhari, the incumbent president was holed up in England for a yet to be disclosed (at least to the tax-paying citizens) ailment and public funds were being expended (i)to treat him (ii)to pay for the hangar containing a presidential jet stationed with him and the living expenses of the crew (iii) to pay for frivolous trips and hotel bills of opportunist politicians of all shades, legislators, aides and others, under the guise of visiting an ailing president, Nigerians became impatient after three months, still counting, that Mr President stayed out of office-constitutional lawyers were opening their books and the civil right groups became restive-Charley Boy, a musician, had to occupy the presidency with his crew.

How else to define irresponsible leadership if not a leadership, who fails to provide the means of livelihood for his citizens but goes out, at will and at public expense, to enjoy what other governments provide for their own citizens? It smacks of evil, disrespect to the people, ungodliness and total ignorance about the meaning and purpose of governance, vis-à-vis the citizens/taxpayers. Our highways and our communities are the least safe human habitats in the world with the prospects of death/maiming through okada riders who don’t know the rules of road usage, let alone obeying them; drivers who purchased driving licenses; armed robbers and burglars and security agents who turn robbers to armed robbers at the slightest opportunity.

These scenarios paint a miserable-picture of a country whose citizenship is nothing to write home about-at best, a burden.  One then understands that it hasn’t being a virtue, being Nigerian, since the end of the first republic, during which waywardness become a special virtue in politics and, by extension, in governance. So much so that today,  it is common to find Nigerians describing politics as a dirty game-politics has no business being dirty, if properly groomed and decently-parented people, not street-gangsters, 419ers and oil bunkers, as we now have, play it. Nigerian youths ‘d rather  troop to slave camps in Libya or Italian hotels, in which they could make a living on prostitution, rather than stay hungry, frustrated and be sources of shame and frustration to the haggard-looking parents who, probably, borrowed monies to train them.

I, once, shook my head, listening to Theresa May, British Prime Minister talking, about her intent to build a country that works for all.  This isn’t just a tall dream but an impossible-utopian one, in our kind of country, in which undesirable elements that parade our streets as politicians would rather they and their families throw away foods than save the citizens from starvation. It’s the only way to keep the citizens, perpetually, subjugated.

Adieu Bolade Eyinla

Just three weeks after you and I met and you hugged me, congratulating me on a new cap I just wore, I learnt of your passage to eternity. We can’t complain because God knows best and we can’t question Him. My sincere condolence goes to Professor Eyinla and the entire family, the entire congregation of the Good Shepherd Catholic Church,Onikanga, Ilorin. The Lord will grant us the fortitude to bear the loss.  Bola, my sister, the Lord will grant you eternal rest, in the bosom of the Saints.